Construction work such as painting or installing drywall can be labor intensive. Such work requires numerous tools which everyone from professional contractors to hobbyists find difficult to keep organized and readily accessible during use. For example, while installing drywall, contractors often use a hawk covered with fresh compound, drywall tape, trowels, and other tools all of which cannot be held at once. These difficulties are compounded by the fact that much of this work must be done while standing on a ladder or stepstool; unbalancing the worker and requiring numerous trips up and down the ladder to exchange tools that are strewn about the floor area below the ladder in an unorganized manner.
Some specialty tools were created to overcome these challenges. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 8,435,377 B1 (Greenhalgh) discloses a drywall tape dispenser assembly which may be used to simultaneously apply compound and drywall tape. However, such equipment is often used only on large projects by professional contractors. Moreover, such specialty tools only address a narrow segment of the broader problem. For example, Greenhalgh only addresses drywall installation difficulties, doing nothing to ease the difficulty of organizing and keeping readily accessible the variety of tools needed for painting or other construction work when working on a ladder or stepstool.
Several devices attempt a broader solution. For example, US 2009/0121095 A1 (Eighmie) discloses a paint can stand with an adjustable pole. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 7,293,748 (Hoser) discloses a vertically adjustable paint can stand, while U.S. Pat. No. 4,223,859 (Erickson) discloses a vertically adjustable pail assembly for holding plaster, mortar or other building materials. U.S. Pat. No. 6,612,533 (Biles) discloses a vertically adjustable support to help carpenters in installing cabinets and handrails, as does US Des. 338,310 (Clarke). Additionally, U.S. Pat. No. 5,906,284 (Hammerstrom) discloses a multi-workstation device used in mounting workshop equipment. However, these disclosures again provide limited functionality; only offering improvements to a narrow segment of the larger problem. None of them address, let alone solve, the larger problem of organizing and keeping readily accessible the requisite multiple tools and materials often used while working—often at a height.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,508,390 (Karpati) takes a different approach to the larger problem; namely, by hanging items off of a worker's belt. This approach undesirably reduces the worker's mobility with heavy, cumbersome, and soiled tools.